The undercarriage (or underside) and especially the wheel well regions-of motor vehicles accumulate much gunk and debris during the normal course of driving. Vehicles that are operated in regions of snow are especially vulnerable to accumulating gunk that includes salt, used by highway departments in an attempt to improve road conditions during freezing conditions. Unless such gunk is removed periodically, rusting of the undercarriage and wheel well regions will occur. General Motors, for example, recommends that the undercarriage and wheel well regions of its vehicles be cleaned periodically. In addition to presenting a potential for rusting, portions of road gunk may work into bearing regions on the vehicle wheels, where further damage if not danger can result.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,746 to Joyal (1991) discloses a device to remove such gunk from the undercarriage. Joyal provides a very stable three-wheeled base member shaped like a "T" that has a plurality of upward facing steerable water jets. A handle member is fixedly attached to the broad end of the base member. Water from a hose is coupled through a handle valve, through the handle member, through a tube in the base member and out the jets. Twisting the handle apparently rotates the water jets.
Unfortunately Joyal's device appears to be rather cumbersome for use in removing debris from behind a tire in a wheel well because it is typically necessary to lift the cleaning device and aim the water output by the device behind the wheel. Joyal's steerable water jets make it difficult for a user who cannot see the jets to know precisely where they are aimed at a given moment. Joyal provides upwardly directed mirrors on the base member to provide some visual guidance, but in practice such mirrors would soon be covered
Joyal's device seems impractical to use during winter, the season when such devices are most needed. For example, when cleaning a vehicle undercarriage, gunk freed by the water spray will fall from the undercarriage onto the device. During freezing weather, this gunk can freeze to the device within a few seconds. As a result, Joyal's steerable water jets and their associated internal gearing would soon be frozen into a fixed orientation due to the presence of freezing gunk falling onto the device. Further, Joyal's device is literally too wide and too stable to be readily tipped sideways and tapped against the ground to remove gunk falling onto the device, which gunk will freeze to the device if not quickly removed.
Although multiple water jets may at first appear to be a desirable feature, but when a user partially withdraws Joyal's device from beneath a vehicle, e.g., perhaps in a backward and forward cleaning motion, the water jet nearest the handle will squirt water into the air and perhaps onto the user. While such a water spray might be delightful in summer, in winter it is unacceptable because it will freeze the user's clothing. Understandable, as the number of water jets increases, the force of the water output from a given jet will decrease, yet when cleaning an undercarriage or a wheel well, maximum water force is desired. Finally, Joyal's device is not stowable in the sense that he provides no mechanism to collapse the device to a form factor sufficiently compact to fit within the trunk of a motor vehicle. Such stowability is desired, especially in winter, as the undercarriage cleaning device will always be available if it is always carried in the vehicle to be cleaned.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,726 to Unger (1985) discloses a car under-washing device that, like Joyal, mounts upward facing water jets on a very stable base member that can be wheeled under a vehicle. The jets are mounted on a "T"-shaped tube within the base member, which generally resembles a flat vacuum cleaner head. A handle assembly attaches flexibly to the base member, and the water jets can be steered by twisting the handle. A water hose attaches to the handle portion, which provides a continuous fluid channel through the "T"-shaped tube and delivers water via the jets to the underside of a motor vehicle.
Unger's device appears to suffer many of the shortcomings noted above with respect to Joyal's device. The stability provided by the base member perhaps works well for washing the underside of a vehicle, but renders the overall device ungainly when trying to get behind a tire to clean a wheel well. Gunk and other debris falling downward from the vehicle underside will soon jam the steerable water jets, especially in freezing temperature, and if the base member is pulled too far out from beneath a vehicle, the user will be sprayed with water from the rear-most jet. Finally, Unger's device requires "knocking-down" or dismantling and does not lend itself to be stowed in a vehicle trunk for use without first reassembling the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,940 to Leaver (1990) discloses a vehicle washing device comprising a single water carrying tube having a dog-leg like appearance. The distal region of the tube is curved and contains several water jets, with the free distal end being capped. One end of the distal region joins a bend tube region that merges angularly into a straight tube region that interfaces with an angled straight tube region, whose free end has a handle and valve for receiving water from a hose or the like. Leaver's device is designed to wash all portions of a vehicle, from the roof to the underside. A significant feature of Leaver's device is said to be a mini-steering wheel like circle located near the handle region, to permit a user to grasp and rotate the device.
Leaver's device has several shortcomings. The relative angle between the water jet carrying tube region and the handle region is permanently fixed, no doubt for ease in washing the roof of a motor vehicle. However this inflexibility would work a hardship on a user attempting to clean the undercarriage of a vehicle in that much stooping and bending would be required to reach all regions. That the device is primarily intended for roof washing is suggested by the absence of any wheels on the bottom of the device, and by the relatively short-appearing length of the horizontal portion of the device. The absence of wheels means that a user attempting to clean the undercarriage of a vehicle would either allow the bottom of the device to scrape along the ground, or would have to manually support the device an inch or so above ground. Allowing the device to scrape the ground would of course soon wear a hole through the tubing, producing a water leak. On the other hand, manually supporting the device would soon exhaust the user attempting to clean the undercarriage of a vehicle. The presence of multiple water jets creates a risk that the user will be sprayed with water, an intolerable happenstance during winter. Finally, Leaver's device must be disassembled for stowing, yet after winter use the component parts might literally be frozen together, preventing immediate disassembly.
In short, although devices to clean the underside of a motor vehicle are known, such devices have shortcomings. There is a need for a simple and lightweight device that can be used to access and clean the undercarriage and wheel well regions of a motor vehicle, and whose construction permits stowing the device within the vehicle trunk. The device should be sufficiently lightweight and maneuverable to access and clean behind a tire in a wheel well region, as well as regions of the undercarriage of a vehicle. Preferably few waterjets should be provided so as to maximize water flow from each jet. Further, no water jets should be provided distant from the distal end of such a device, to guard against spraying a user with water during winter, when the device is moved away from the underside of a vehicle.
The present invention provides such a device.